"A year ago, Ocean Hour was a young fledgling organization, the three year old dream of an impassioned environmentalist. Ocean Hour had a solid core of volunteers and a regular beach cleanup commitment but lacked the know-how to get to the next level. Shorecombers was instrumental to Ocean Hour at a critical time in our growth.

Shorecombers was key to bringing focus and structure to Ocean Hour. The precise and succinct coursework offered by Shorecombers helped us pull together a plan for Ocean Hour. Shorecombers showed how the use of stakeholders, business plans and constant management assessment were important tools for our non-profit organization to reach milestones and set future goals.

Ocean Hour recommends Shorecombers without reservation to any individual or group needing to learn how to navigate the setup, implementation and planning for their cause. Shorecombers gave us the personal attention and broad perspective Ocean Hour needed to survive and flourish." (Ocean Hour in October 2016)

Ocean Hour, Gulf Breeze Florida Demonstrates the Power of Small Incremental Change

Ocean Hour, powered by Sharon Gincauskas and Barbara Mozur, has been keeping trash out of the ocean in Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach, Florida for 5 years and is one of Shorecomber’s first graduates.

Inspired by a newspaper article with an invitation from Justin Riney to pick up trash for one hour a week, Sharon began doing just that. Every Saturday morning she’d pick up trash for an hour sometimes taking her children and neighbors along with her. On moving to the Gulf Coast Barbara joined the cleanup activities. Working together made it possible for Ocean Hour to really take off.

“We have now expanded to five sites at around 12 square miles – Naval Live Oaks Nature Preserve, Bay Bluffs Park, Chimney Park, Wayside Park West (Project Green Shores), and Pensacola Beach all the way to Fort Pickens – and as we increase our areas we reach more people and inspire more volunteers” shared Sharon. You can see maps of the area in the video below on Mapping Your Territory.

“We have a strong solid volunteer base, we have structure, commitments and ideas for expansion. We’ve enjoyed small steady incremental change from the clean ups and making people aware of the problem” added Barbara.

Ocean Hour’s main event remains a one-hour beach clean up every Saturday morning. They supply trash bags, grabbers and gloves and make it as easy as possible for you to show up and give an hour of your time.

Volunteer for a cleanup and learn more about Ocean Hour Florida at www.facebook.com/oceanhourfl and:oceanhourfl@gmail.com

Introducing Ocean Hour

Learn how Ocean Hour Florida got its start.

Creating Solutions in Partnership

The first step to Trash Blasting is to develop your partnerships/stakeholders. Here we see how valuable that was to Sharon and Barbara.

Mapping Your Territory

Ocean Hour Florida shows us their favorite hot spots of trash. You can't always clean up the whole territory so you concentrate on the areas with the most trash.